Dodgers Leave Vero Beach Training Camp Today, Perhaps for Good

FORT McDOWELL, Ariz. —  Hey, Dodger fan, jump on a plane, land at Phoenix an hour later, land in your seat at the Dodgers’ new spring training home within another hour. Can’t beat that in Vero Beach, Fla., where a weekend trip is virtually pointless because getting there and back can take the whole weekend.

“It took us eight hours to fly there, two hours to drive there and two hours to get lost,” said Bernadine Boyd, tribal president of the Fort McDowell Indian community.

Sure, the Dodgers could tip their cap toward tradition and continue going to spring training in Vero Beach, a quaint but isolated hamlet on Florida’s east coast. Or they could make more money, attract more fans and enjoy greater convenience by accepting a generous invitation from Fort McDowell, northeast of Phoenix.

If the Dodgers say yes, the Yavapai tribe plans to spend $50 million to build, on its reservation, a training complex second to none, dipping deep into casino profits in the hope of spurring economic development. The Dodgers will tell the tribe what amenities they want, and will spend nothing.

“They understand there’s nothing compelling us to leave Vero,” said Fred Coons, the Dodgers’ director of business development. “They have to entice us with something that not only meets but exceeds what we have. They came up with a very good proposal.”

A stadium that can pack in twice as many fans as the one in Vero Beach? Check. Practice diamonds in the cloverleaf layout that allows coaches to watch four fields from one spot? Check.

Tennis courts, dining hall and housing, duplicating Vero Beach facilities included in no other major league training complex? Check. Dodgertown tradition transplanted to Arizona by naming streets, fields, and buildings after legends such as Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax and Vin Scully? Check.

But if this decision were all about tradition, there would be no decision. Walter O’Malley moved the Dodgers to Vero Beach 10 years before he moved them out of Brooklyn, and son Peter never seriously considered leaving the traditional spring home.

Within weeks of buying the team from the O’Malley family last year, however, Fox executives called Arizona officials and asked what the state could do for the Dodgers.

After a winter in which the Dodgers signed pitcher Kevin Brown to a record $105-million contract and considered razing Dodger Stadium, the Fox operational principles emerged with startling clarity: Spend as much money as necessary to make as much as possible.

“You’ve got to look at every part of your operation to contribute to fielding the best team possible,” Coons said. “If we can save money in spring training, or if we can make more money in spring training, that can help our team.”

How can the Dodgers save money? They own their Vero Beach facility, so they pay property taxes, a burden that would be eliminated in Arizona. City and county officials in Florida hope to buy Dodgertown and lease it back to the team, which also would relieve the Dodgers of that tax bill.

Vero Beach officials cannot, however, move their state closer to California or their city closer to other Grapefruit League stops, the nearest of which is 45 minutes away. In Arizona, where all 10 Cactus League teams train within roughly 100 miles and Los Angeles is 400 miles away, the Dodgers could save money in air fare and shipping costs.

They could make money too. Holman Stadium in Vero Beach seats 6,500. The proposed Fort McDowell stadium would seat 12,500, matching the Chicago Cubs’ ballpark as the largest in the Cactus League. And, although spring training is not strictly major league, the prices are. The Cubs, the best draw in the Cactus League, charge $13 for a box seat; the Angels charge $11.

Until the Angels moved from Mesa, Ariz., and Palm Springs to Tempe in 1993, they usually lost money on spring training, according to former club president Richard Brown.

“It’s being marketed a lot more differently than it used to be,” said Brown, who negotiated the deal with Tempe. “The main purpose used to be to get the team into shape. Now the main purpose is to make the team additional revenue.”

The Angels grossed $463,000 last spring, according to Kristin Hecht, recreation supervisor for the city of Tempe. The Dodgers easily could double that figure, since the Angels averaged only 4,917 fans last year, ranking eighth in the Cactus League. The Cubs attracted a league-leading 8,396 per game, and Arizona officials believe the Dodgers could meet or beat that number.

“With the possible exception of the Yankees, there’s not one other team in baseball that could be considered more of a plum to a spring training league,” Cactus League President Jerry Geiger said.

The Angels pay no rent in Tempe and keep 80% of revenue from ticket sales and 50% of revenue from concessions, parking, advertising and program sales. The city pays for maintenance out of its share of ticket revenue and distributes the remaining income to community groups.

The Fort McDowell proposal offers the Dodgers a 30-year lease at $1 a year. Tribal officials have yet to negotiate with the Dodgers on how to split maintenance costs and revenues.

“We can’t have them live here for $1 a year,” tribal council member and past president Clinton Pattea said.

Coons said, “We understand, in order to make this viable for 20 or 30 years, [the tribe needs] to get some return on their investment, which is pretty significant.”

Tribal officials sent their proposal to the Dodgers in January, and construction could start tomorrow if the Dodgers gave the nod. But they have yet to respond, awaiting a promised offer from Vero Beach and the chance to compare the bids.

“I would hope we’ll have a decision one way or the other this summer,” Coons said.

Yet the tribe has leverage too. If the Dodgers decide to move west, they appear to have no other options.

The Dodgers talked with officials in Las Vegas, who envision a four-team, $50-million training complex in suburban Henderson. But no teams have signed up, and the Dodgers haven’t called in months, said Don Logan, general manager of the Las Vegas Stars, the city’s minor league team.

In 1991, Arizona legislators approved a tourist tax that financed new or renovated stadiums for every team in the Cactus League. That money has long since been allocated.

“We don’t have the financial wherewithal to do anything,” Geiger said.

The Maricopa County--Phoenix--Board of Supervisors approved a sales tax--money from residents, that is, not tourists--to pay for the $354-million stadium for the Arizona Diamondbacks. When the Dodgers inquired about whether the board might adopt a similar tax to assist them, they learned that two of the three supervisors who had approved the tax had been voted out of office. The third had been shot and wounded.

While several area cities expressed interest in the Dodgers, none could afford to build a training complex solely out of its own pocket. The tribe can, thanks to its gaming revenues. The Fort McDowell casino generates an estimated $150 million a year, according to gaming analyst Sebastian Sinclair of Christiansen Cummings Associates in New York.

As other tribes lure patrons with new casinos, Fort McDowell officials want to diversify economic development on the 25,000-acre reservation. The tribe envisions the training complex as the hub of a 260-acre site that could include hotels, restaurants, shops, a golf course, an amusement park and an expanded casino, all intended to generate jobs and income for tribal members.

“Our government has to take care of our people,” said Boyd, the tribal president. “We have to go out and bring business back into our community.”

The absence of city and state assistance also inflates the cost of the proposed complex. The $50-million price tag covers construction of the stadium, 12 full-size and three half-size practice diamonds, parking lots, administrative buildings and dining, housing and recreational facilities.

Tribal officials want to recruit a second team to share the complex with the Dodgers, allowing daily use of the stadium, and the Toronto Blue Jays have expressed interest. Six of the full-size practice diamonds and two half-size ones would not be built until a second team committed to train there, but tribal officials say the additional fields do not represent a significant expense.

However, they say, the costs associated with converting barren land into a training complex account for about $10 million, and the tribe will not receive the government aid provided for two-team, 12-diamond facilities in Tucson and Peoria, Ariz.

Tucson Electric Park, shared by the Diamondbacks and Chicago White Sox, cost $35 million. The Peoria Sports Complex, shared by the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners, cost $32 million.

In 1993, with the Peoria stadium under construction, the Mariners trained at adjacent practice fields but played all Cactus League games on the road. If the Dodgers chose Fort McDowell next spring, they would face a similar scenario, because the stadium could not be completed by then. The Dodgers also could rent the Cactus League stadium closest to Fort McDowell, in Scottsdale, on days the San Francisco Giants were not playing there.

To maximize revenue, however, the Dodgers could announce a move to Fort McDowell in 2001, then spend a farewell spring in Vero Beach, luring fans for a last-chance visit to Dodgertown.

“It could be great--this is our last year, and let’s celebrate that,” Coons said. “But we really haven’t thought about the details of that.”

At a recent meeting of the tribal council, Fort McDowell residents did not want to discuss schools, senior centers, even the tribe’s $10-million sand and gravel operation. Never mind the agenda, or so Boyd related, just tell us about the first pitch.

“There was just an outpouring,” she said. “Everybody wanted to know when the Dodgers were coming.”

ARIZONA

PROPOSED SITE: Fort McDowell

STADIUM CAPACITY: 12,500

COMPLEX SIZE: 260 acres

PROPOSED AMENITIES: Hotels, restaurants, shops, golf course, amusement park, recreation-vehicle park, casino, tennis courts, dining hall and housing, duplicating Vero Beach facilities

THE OFFER: A 30-year lease at $1 a year. Tribal officials have yet to negotiate with the Dodgers on how to split maintenance costs and revenues.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING: “They have to entice us with something that not only meets but exceeds what we have. They came up with a very good proposal.”

--FRED COONS, Dodger administrator

Coverage

* Blue Jays would be interested in sharing Arizona spring training site with Dodgers. Page 8

* Casino near Dodgers’ proposed Arizona spring training site should not be problem. Page 9

* Tourist tax kept Cactus League going when teams considered leaving for Florida. Page 9

* Cactus attendance up 42% since 1991, and should top million in ’99 for first time. Page 9